TYPOGRAPHISCHE GESTALTUNG

Jan Tschichold

Jan Tschichold: TYPOGRAPHISCHE GESTALTUNG. Basel: Benno Schwabe, 1935. First edition. Text in German. Small quarto. Blue cloth with printed paper label on spine. Uncoated dust jacket printed in two colors. 112 pp. 8 pages of advertisements. 38 typographic examples printed in multiple colors on a variety of paper stocks. Large former owners signature on front free endpaper. Jacket spine sun-darkened and lightly mottled. Jacket splitting along fore-edge. A well-preserved copy. Out-of-print. Layout and typography by the author. Scarce in dust jacket. A near fine copy in a very good dust jacket.

6.25 x8.5 hardcover book bound in full cloth with 112 pages and 8 pages of advertisements (including full-page ads for Axis and Telehor, with illustrations by Ben Nicholson and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy). This edition includes 38 typographic examples printed in multiple colors on a variety of paper stocks by Tschichold, Giambattista Bodoni, Wl. Strzeminski, Max Bill, El Lissitzky, Josef Albers, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Herbert Bayer, John Funke, Zdenek Rossmann, Ladislav Sutnar, Walter Cyliax and Hermann Virl.

Tschichold was the most eloquent spokesman of the Neue Werbergestalter (circle of new advertising designers) established by Kurt Schwitters in 1928 and helped to disseminate Constructivist principles with his books. He favored asymmetrical layouts and an orderly presentation instead of the centered arrangements of classical book printing or the fluid individualism of Art Nouveau. Grolier Club, A Century for the Century, 36 (in reference to the 1935 edition of Typographische Gestaltung): ". . . with its mixture of types and asymmetrical composition, clearly exhibits the modern sensibility. Basically revolutionary in its design, such work was to push printing in a new direciton, and Tschichold was one of the first and one of the best practitioners of modernist style."

The Circle of New Advertising Designers (ring neue werbegestalter) was a group who coalesced after the first statements on the new typography by Tschchold and Moholy-Nagy, and their purpose was the promotion of a common vision of the avant-garde. Ring neue werbegestalter intentionally echoed the name of The Ring, a group of Berlin-based architects which had been formed a few years earlier.

In Heinz and Bodo Rausch's Gefesselter Blick (1930), The Ring's point of view was defined by Paul Shuitema , acknowledging that modern design involved the separation of hand and machine which previous generations had so strongly fought against: "the designer is not a draughtsman, but rather an organizer of optical and technical factors. His work should not be limited to making notes, placing in groups and organizing things technically."

Tschichold was more succinct: " I attempt to reach the maximum of purpose in my publicity works and to connect the single constructive elements harmoniously -- to design."

Price: $750.00
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